


Decide

by MissjuliaMiriam



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BIG SPOILERS for Final Resting Place, Fix-It, M/M, Morning After
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-07 14:53:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15910509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissjuliaMiriam/pseuds/MissjuliaMiriam
Summary: In the dead of night in a hotel room in a bed next to Peter Nureyev... Juno Steel falls asleep.





	Decide

**Author's Note:**

> It has been an extremely long time since a piece of media has given me such intense feels that I HAD to write fix-it fic. Usually I'm making it worse, not better. It's also been a long time since I've met a character whose internal monologue I've found so easy to write as Juno's (maybe because I've binged this podcast and have listen to a LOT of his narration).
> 
> Anyways, this is my second crack at "so-and-so instead does NOT panic and ditch in the middle of the night and then spend god knows how long pining" AU, and I refuse to let this one grow big plotty legs and turn into a monstrosity and run off for 80,000 words. If you want that one and you like Dragon Age, go read Willow. 
> 
> Here's some boys kissing and everything being slightly less shitty, with minimal plot.

 

_Going in there was a bad decision... which made it feel right at home with all my other decisions._

\- Juno Steel, _Juno Steel and the Lesson Learned, Part 1_

 

Juno Steel woke up.

He hadn't noticed falling asleep, to tell the truth. He'd been lying there, watching Peter Nureyev sleep, thinking about how fucking awful the decision he was about to make would be just as soon as he could work up the willpower to leave the warmth of this man's side, and then... nothing. He's not sure now, looking at the dented pillow beside his head, whether he regrets giving Nureyev -- Peter -- the chance to leave him more than he'd have regretted leaving himself.

He sighed and rolled over onto his back, all the better to stare at the blank white ceiling instead. It's a nice hotel, he thought to himself. Clean, unlike a lot of other places in Hyperion City. He'd been awake for long enough last night to know that none of the staff were going to come and rifle their bags in the dead of night, either, which was a real nice bonus.

From somewhere else in the room, Peter Nureyev said, "Oh, Juno! You're awake!"

Juno sat up so fast that he got dizzy and had to lie down again. Footsteps, and then Nureyev was leaning over him, peering down into his face. "Good... morning?" Juno said, confused.

"Indeed," Nureyev replied. "You'd best get up and shower; we've a shuttle to catch in just a few hours."

Juno sat up again, more slowly this time. He said, "So I didn't, uh, hallucinate agreeing to go running off to the stars with you last night."

"No," Nureyev said, then continued, more carefully, "Would you prefer you had?"

It took Juno a minute to figure out how to reply to that. "Not... as such," he said.

"That's not a no," Nureyev observed, and sat down on the bed next to Juno's hip. "What's wrong, dear detective? Cold feet?"

Juno hesitated, just long enough for a look of understanding to pass over Nureyev's face.

"You don't really _want_ to leave," he said quietly. "You should have said."

"I don't--" Juno broke off and looked away. "I don't _not_ want to leave. It's just that... I need to stay."

"You don't need to do anything you don't want to."

Juno laughed bitterly. "You'd be surprised at how many things I need to do regularly that I don't want to. Shower, basically all the time; eat, sometimes. Run, every time, because fuck running. Getting out of bed in the morning can bite me, frankly."

Nureyev reached over and touched Juno's cheek. Juno wasn't sure he'd ever had someone touch him so tenderly, except for every other time Nureyev had touched him before. "You don't owe this city anything, Juno Steel."

"Maybe not," Juno said, and shrugged. He turned his face away from Nureyev's touch. "But it's my city."

There was a long silence. Then Nureyev said, "Okay. I'll call the shuttle company."

He got up off the bed and went to dig for his comms. Juno stared at the sheets. Back to where he'd been when he woke up, after all: Peter Nureyev gone, or basically gone, and Juno Steel, here in Hyperion City, alone. Just this time he'd done a bang-up job of engineering his own abandonment.

"Yes, thank you," said Nureyev on the other side of the room. "Cancellations. Under Basil Kythera? Yes, I had two tickets--I'd like to cancel them, please. I was mistaken about the date of my departure and will need to consult with my wife before rebooking; the lady's commitments here in the city cannot wait, I'm sure you understand. Of course. Of course, yes--the number I gave you is fine. Thank you. Have an excellent morning yourself."

"What," Juno said, when Nureyev had hung up.

"Well," Nureyev said, coming back over to the bed, "I'm hoping that given a few weeks to remember how badly you need a vacation, you will come to your senses and let me take you on one--at least a short one."

"I... thought you'd leave," Juno said. "That's what you said last night--that we could leave together, or I could choose to never see your face again."

Something immensely sad passed over Nureyev's face, then. "Oh, Juno," he said, then put one knee on the bed and leaned over to press their foreheads together. "That's not at all what I meant."

"I'm not going to tie you down here. You belong out there. You _love_ it."

"And I'll go eventually," Nureyev said, his voice quiet, intimate. They were breathing each other's air, closer than a kiss. "But right now I don't want the stars more than I want you."

"You should," Juno whispered, but didn't stop himself from leaning forward to steal a kiss from those sly, careful lips. Peter kissed like every shift of his lips was him shaping a question that he just knew Juno had the answer to. It was intoxicating. When they broke apart, Juno kept his eyes closed, not wanting to return to their previous conversation even a little bit.

Nureyev, apparently, did not have the same reservations. "I never meant to make you think that your only options were to run away with me forever or to never see me again, Juno. Just that those were _some_ of the options. I suppose I should have known that you could never bring yourself to ask for what you want."

"And what do I want, Nureyev?"

"I wouldn't dare to speak for you."

Juno opened his eyes. Nureyev was still so close. So Juno said, "I want you to stay," and then could hardly believe he'd actually said it.

"Thank you," Nureyev said. He didn't say anything else, like that was... enough. All of it, just that: 'thank you'.

_Fuck_ , thought Juno. Maybe that _was_ enough. He swallowed and didn't kiss Peter again, because if he did that he wasn't going to stop, and aside from the fact that he'd been missing for god-knew how long and really needed to call Rita, his mouth also tasted like terrible, awful things, such as blood and mornings. He wasn't quite sure how Nureyev had put up with it a minute ago.

Juno swallowed again, then he drew back and said awkwardly, "I need to brush my teeth."

Nureyev smiled. "If you insist."

Juno slid out the sheets and remembered a moment too late that he hadn't managed to put any clothes back on last night after... everything. The noise Peter made reminded him, and also granted just enough confidence that Juno could walk to the bathroom door and then pause in the doorway and say over his shoulder, "I'm going to shower, too."

"Would the lady like company?" Peter asked, still kneeling on the bed. His voice was hoarse.

Juno didn't reply, just took his best crack at a coy look and then slipped into the bathroom, leaving the door open behind him.

 

**Author's Note:**

> It's very possible, even likely, that I'll write more Juno Steel fic, and even possible that I'll write a continuation of this, but I'm inexperienced with crime/thriller/noir as a genre and it'll be some time before I manage anything like plot, so... we'll see what I manage to produce. Comments feed the fic factory, though!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Decide [PODFIC]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19172518) by [PresAudiobooks (PresAlex)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PresAlex/pseuds/PresAudiobooks)




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